Volume 6Chapter 2: The past is too painful to recall

I never thought that Uncle San would start his story 50 years ago. This time I didn’t bring Grandpa’s notebook with me, but I remember the content very clearly. What happened that night 50 years ago was very strange, but Grandpa didn’t write about it in the end. We don’t know anything about what happened after he fell into a coma. Now that I recall the text inside, I still feel an inexplicable feeling in my heart.

But when Uncle San said this, I suddenly didn’t believe him. Because Grandpa was very secretive about this matter. Before he died, no matter how we younger generations asked, he never said anything. Uncle San and Grandpa didn’t get along well when they were young, and I believe Grandpa would never tell him.

So when he said this, I said, “Don’t you dare fool me. Fifty years ago, Grandpa was still naked. He was so tight-lipped, how do you know? Don’t just make up some story to fool me. I won’t fall for it.”

Uncle San was displeased. He said, ‘I can’t tell you because you’re in a hurry, and you won’t believe me. How can I know? If you don’t believe me, I won’t tell you. I don’t want to tell you anyway.’

I saw that he was going to back out, so I said, ‘No, I believe you. I was just expressing my surprise. Go on.’

Uncle San glared at me, thought for a moment, and then continued.

As I listened, I realized that I had misunderstood him. But I never expected things to develop in this way.

The cause of the incident was the notebook, but the process was much more complicated.

The notebook had been in the attic of my family’s house in a box before it came into my possession. It was only when I learned to read and happened to see it when I was looking through old things that it came into my hands.

Uncle San didn’t remember when he first saw the notes, but he knew that he had been around for a while by then, had seen a bit of the world, and had heard many strange stories from his elders. He knew that there was a saying among the Changsha grave robbers that “the soil is bloody and the corpse is golden,” so as soon as he saw the notes, he thought that he had never found anything particularly impressive, and was immediately attracted to the things recorded in the notes.

Almost immediately, he had the idea of going back to Dui Zi Ling to take a look. Ancient tombs don’t move. Even after so many years, they should still be there. Plus, during the early years of liberation, there were still bandits roaming the mountains and forests, so not many people entered. He believed that there should still be something left in the ancient tomb.

However, Daziling was just a common name for the place where his grandfather grew up. Such a name could refer to a small mound, or even an entire mountain or even an entire unknown area of the original jungle, so it was unrealistic to rely on a place name to find the ancient tomb.

So, how can we determine the exact location of that place? Uncle San pondered for a long time, but never got anywhere. It wasn’t until the year before he went to Xisha that he finally got a clue.

That year he went to Changsha to visit his grandfather’s hometown. The hometown was in the mountains, and he walked for four days on mountain trails to reach that remote rural area. There he asked the locals about the location of Yundongziling. Although he didn’t get direct information that time, he became familiar with the local customs and conditions.

After returning home, he studied the notes again and things became clear. Based on other content in Grandpa’s notes, his memory of eavesdropping on Grandpa when he was a child, and some things he had learned from asking around, he vaguely deduced that the ancient tomb should be located near the devil’s village in Mangshan.

Because in the notes, Grandpa mentioned that when Tai Gong and Grandpa were traveling in Manglin, they were both bitten by a “iron-headed snake.” This kind of snake often coils under shrubs and is difficult to find. It was a widespread hazard at the time, and later, a snake-hunting campaign was launched, which in one fell swoop drove this kind of snake to the brink of extinction. Of course, this is a later story.

At that time, the earth workers were born and raised by nature. After being bitten by a poisonous snake, they often just sucked out the venom, patted on some tobacco leaves, and ate a few mouthfuls of earth medicine. After this treatment, if the bitten person did not have a toxic reaction after a few hours, they would be fine; otherwise, there was generally no room for redemption, and they had to accept their fate.

The snakes that bit the two of them were small and the wounds were not deep, so Grandpa and the others did not pay much attention to them. After a simple treatment, they did not feel anything unusual, so they continued on their way without saying a word. Unexpectedly, after walking two miles, Grandpa suddenly fell to the ground and then lost consciousness.

When they stopped to take a closer look, they saw that Grandpa’s skin was turning blue and he was convulsing. It was obvious that the snake venom had taken effect. Later, Grandpa’s great-grandfather rushed for several tens of miles to find local mountain people, who saved Grandpa’s life with herbal medicine.

Grandpa and the others rested in the same place for two days. According to Grandpa’s description of the waterfall at the time, they could be sure that the place where they rested should be the Devil’s Village.

The fourth day after this incident, they arrived at a place called Daziling. The place was located in a plain in the valley, surrounded by mountains. There were many old vines in the valley, but there was no vegetation in the deepest part of the valley, revealing a red bare soil.

The sarcophagus was located under the valley. Ironically, the snake that bit my grandfather is now an endangered species. The value of an adult snake is over a million yuan, far more than the price of an ordinary Ming vessel.

In this way, the hope of finding it is much greater. Although the original jungle of Mangshan was vast at that time, far exceeding the current location of the Guizi Village Waterfall, which is located in the central part of the jungle, there are not many similar landscapes that can be inferred, and it is not difficult to find.

Uncle San packed his bags and set off again. Uncle San was used to going alone, because he was too young, and the old people did not want to go out with him, and there were no people of the same age who could match him in skill.

However, after he had gone through great hardships and crossed the almost uninhabited Mangshan jungle, what came into view was a scene that he had never dreamed of.